Louison Coiffet (France) and Miria Meinheit (Germany) have won the Restonica Trail 2024, that’s part of the UTMB World Series. Coiffet did it in style, by breaking the course record of Lambert Santelli.
With 107 kilometres of running and 7.200 metres of climbing the Ultra Trail di Corsica is the queen race of the Restonica Trail. A race that brought out the best in Coiffet. The French trail and ultra runner led from the start. Only after passing Pinadellu, 21 kilometres into the race and with 2.043 metres of climbing already done, he slipped for a moment in second place behind Gautier Airiau. However, half a marathon later, at Bocca Crucette, with already 4.154 metres of climbing under his belt, Coiffet was back in the lead.
RELATED: All eyes on Val d’Aran, UTMB’s European Major
Course record
From there onwards it wasn’t a race against opponents anymore for Coiffet, but a race against time. To be precise the course record of Sentelli, who won the race last year for the third time. He clocked back then the fastest time: 15 hours, 15 minutes and 31 seconds.
Coiffet smashed that record to pieces. He stopped the clock at 14:45:09. Half an hour faster than Santelli in 2023. And more than 75 minutes faster than the number two, Gautier Airiau (France), who finished in 16:01:27. Antoine Laine made it an one, two, three for France by finishing third in 16:43:44.
Meinheit by far the strongest
The women’s race was also never a battle for first place. Miria Meinheit was too strong for that. The German Dynafit trail runner finished just outside the top 20 overall (23th). With her time of 19:58:16 she was almost three hours faster than runner-up Kimino Miyazaki. The Japanese Hoka athlete clocked 22:57:50. Natacha Piecq (France) completed the podium. She ran the Ultra Trail di Corsica in 23:46:36.
Although Meinheit won easy, she had to go deep: “It’s a very difficult, technical route. I really loved it, but it was very tough. It was the toughest race I have ever done. That’s why I want to thank all who cheered and supported me during the race.”
All results Restonica Trail 2024
